Member Info for alto1

Second part of the execution is operational efficiency. Clearly, it's about the way we do things. And we are evolving our operating models to drive operational efficiency and improve our cost base as a continuous measure. We want to have a culture of continuous improvement. We want to focus on increased automation. And also, of course, improved marketing, ROI and marketing efficiency is a big component in our operational efficiency. Finally, creating scale. A lot of talk about scale in our industry. For us, this is very much about internal scale. How can we generate economies of scale through using common platform components across the group? So at the moment, we have a global trading platform that is used all across our territories. We have used -- we have rolled out a data platform in the U.S. that is being rolled out in the rest of our business as we speak. And we will find, over time, other technical components that we can use across the group. It's also about building global center of excellences for functions where that makes sense. And finally, we will also continue to leverage selective nonorganic opportunities such as the CBS deal where they make sense.

So that's customer, team and execution. And that is our priorities going forward. And like I said now a couple of times, we're very excited about the position we're in. We have a renewed focus on the competitiveness of the William Hill offering and customer, team and execution. And we are well positioned for the future. But we also do realize and recognize that we have challenges ahead and plenty of work still to do.

Thank you very much for listening. And I believe now we're going to take questions. And we have -- if you can try to keep that to maximum two questions each, please.

Question-and-Answer Session

Q - Gavin Kelleher

Good morning. Gavin Kelleher from Goodbody. Just two for me then, please. Ulrik, just on the £2 stake chatter we've seen in Online. I know it's, obviously, you guys would be pushing for other measures at control any kind of worries about responsible gambling. But just given the increased kind of risk we have around a £2 stake potentially in online in the UK Have you given or will you give any potential impact on your online business of that £2 stake?

Ulrik Bengtsson

First of all, just to take a step back. There's been an enormous amount of progress in our industry in the last 2 years when it comes to how we do age verification, source of funds, customer due diligence, the algorithms we put in place to protect customers and proactively reach out to customers that might have problems. All of these things are things you cannot do in a retail environment. You can only do online. That creates a new platform for this conversation. And I think when we get into review of the Gambling Act, my feeling, like I said before, is that there is a huge appetite for this to be sensible and evidence-based conversation. And then when that has happened, we will see what comes out of that.

Gavin Kelleher

Just maybe one follow-up on that question for me. Just, I think most people are using a GambleAware report from 2017 data on kind of staking levels and online that came from, I think, 11 or 13 operators. Just given what's happened around enhanced due diligence and VIP players, i.e., your exposure has come down and more of a focus on recreational. Has there been a reduction in the number of players that are staking at higher than £2 in your business over the last 3 years?

Ruth Prior

Ulrik Bengtsson

What I have said in the House of Lords, we have 0.6% of our customer base that we classify as high-value customers. We wouldn't comment on whether that's up or down.

Gavin Kelleher

Okay, perfect. And do you think...

Ulrik Bengtsson

I think that was your two, right?

Michael Mitchell

Michael Mitchell from Davy. Two from my side, if I could as well, please. First of all, on international online, maybe you can help us bridge where the business is in terms of net revenue growth today to be high single-digit growth that you're targeting for the current year? And specifically within that, maybe you could speak about the improvements you've made in Italy and Spain that you referenced and also the underlying pace of growth ex the disruptive markets. That's question one.

Ulrik Bengtsson

So we've done a number of product improvements. Like I said, down 3% in the international market last year and partly because of regulation and partly because of legacy product. And we've done a lot of product improvements, most notably, the new Sportsbook front end, that's rolling off the old Mobenga legacy Sportsbook and deploying our own. And also launching a single wallet in Spain and improved gaming offering. So there's been quite a lot of changes, that's really coming live in the first quarter full year, full out, I think, to support that business. Underlying in the international business, though, we've had good underlying activity in many other territories. But again, we did face into challenges in Sweden, Holland, and also in Switzerland, primarily. So that took the edge off sort of it, a little bit. But we're optimistic on how that business performs underlying, particularly Mr Green.

Michael Mitchell

And second question, and you mentioned, I think the term used was deep integration of your products on the CBS digital platforms. Could you give a couple of examples of what that is to help us visualize? I mean, how deeply that media partnership will be? And what the CBS platform visitors will see from Hill's perspective?

Ulrik Bengtsson

Yes. It's still early days. So we of course need to work through all the details. But for example, if you have a studio setting before an NFL game, you might have all those tickers on the screen. As all these tickers on the screen where we present our odds could be so integrated in the fantasy environment, where you follow your team or you put the team together. And besides that, you'll have William Hill, also the ability to place bets. So there's a whole range of interactions in that sort of digital ecosystem where we can integrate our product. And of course, all the link outs. Linking to our sites from all of the properties that CBS have online.

Ivor Jones

Ivor Jones from Peel Hunt. Could you just remind us how important Cheltenham and the EUROs typically are? And what product mitigation plans would be in place get canceled? And you mentioned launching gaming in the U.S., does the Eldorado deal cover gaming? So does that imply you'll be a gaming provider state-by-state to Eldorado plus Caesars?

Ulrik Bengtsson

Yes. So the second one, gaming is a big priority, and it does cover that. So it's more not all states has legislative environment for gaming, yes. So we share territory to ones that actually allows gaming. And on the first bid, Cheltenham and the EUROs with all these big events, there is a massive customer acquisition opportunity. You get a lot of recreational players coming online for these events. In terms of the financial impact, beyond that, to be honest, it's very much results driven, you could have a very good event. You can have a poor event. It's really hard to predict at this point.

Joe Thomas

It's Joe Thomas from HSBC. You've said you made strides on addressing the regulatory challenges. The one that was talked about a lot over the course of the last year was affordability. And can you just give some more granularity, visibility, whatever the word is on exactly what you've done there over the course of the last year. To, and the sort of drag that's had on the business? I'm sort of wondering sort of if there's more to go there? And if you've done enough? And then secondly, internationally, I guess, there are still some regulatory headwinds to think about potentially Netherlands. Germany, is it possible to give us a rundown on your views there and sort of risk that you're contemplating?

Ulrik Bengtsson

If we start with affordability. There's more to be done affordability for sure. But we have done, started to do a lot. You've got to remember, we're not FCA regulators. We don't have direct access to customers, bank records and things like that. So we do a lot of open source and a lot of database work to be able to assess customer affordability. And we're a bit down that path, but I think there's, like all other areas around regulation. I think there's more work to be done.

On the international business, the way I look at the international business and the countries you mentioned. I actually look at them as opportunities. So if you take Sweden as the example that we've been through last year. Yes, it was very painful for 3, 4, 5, 6 months, depending on who you were. But once you're through that, you're actually in a much better position. We are in a healthy market, relatively stable, and it's growing again from a different base. So to me, Holland is actually 1 of the opportunities we have ahead of us. I think Germany, if that actually turns out to be a regulatory regime update on that. I think it's actually an opportunity long term.

Richard Stuber

Richard Stuber from Numis. First question actually is on sort of the UK competitive environment. I guess, we've seen some smaller operators exiting the market. Do you think now we've, you think now it makes it probably easier for you to work in that environment, are you starting, seeing like less competition on marketing spend, for example, in the UK? And the second question is, again, on the CBS deal. Is there any economics you can provide to us in terms of a revenue share agreement? And also what you plan to do on the fantasy side?

Ulrik Bengtsson

I think calling the UK market easy, would be, a lot of people that would be very upset, if I use that. Still 300 license holders or something like that in the UK. So it's very competitive. And to be honest, some of those players that have left the market at the moment, it's more or less on the margin. But we'll see. We'll, of course, monitor this very closely. On the CBS deal, we haven't disclosed any financials, I guess, all we can say is there's no equity involved. Do you want to add something to that?

Ruth Prior

No. I think. No, actually.

Simon Davies

Yes. Simon Davies from Deutsche. Two from me. Firstly, just on international markets and online. Can you give us a breakdown in terms of percentage of that, that is coming from fully regulated markets?

Ulrik Bengtsson

We haven't done that breakdown, but the only breakdown we have done, I think, is that 35% of our online business is coming outside of the UK So 65% in the UK and then 35% outside. I think if you dug around a little bit in the Mr Green numbers, you will be able to find where they were. Sweden, obviously, regulated, Italy regulated, Spain regulated.

Simon Davies

And also on Mr Green, you talked about performance being in line with our expectations. Is that true in terms of revenue performance? And can you give us a guide in terms of what the revenue performance was year-on-year?

Ulrik Bengtsson

Yes, that is true. In terms of revenue performance. I don't think we have given a number on where that number is, but it's been good progress.

Bridie Barrett

Bridie Barrett from Stifel. Just two questions. Can you clarify in Retail, whether you anticipate an impact from the credit card ban and what that might be? And also just a clarification on guidance. You said you're happy with consensus, assuming no changes to regulation. So is that pre the £5 million to £10 million that you've indicated for credit cards and online?

Ruth Prior

So the £5 million to £10 million, we did give that guidance about 6 weeks ago. I would suggest that most people ignored me. So that needs to go into consensus. What was the other question?

Ulrik Bengtsson

Credit cards in Retail.

Ruth Prior

We don't use credit cards in Retail.

Kiranjot Grewal

Kiranjot here from Bank of America. I just had two questions. And firstly, on the U.S. gaming opportunity, are you comfortable with the William Hill brand as it is to capture customers there? And then secondly, what are your expectations on how the U.S. market will progress in the next few years, particularly, in the context of several U.S. tie-ups being announced over the last month and some major players to yet give it a push in the U.S.? thank you.

Ulrik Bengtsson

Well, I think with -- I mean, the whole reason for doing the CBS deal is to help us build a brand. Across the nation. Of course, gaming is not nationwide. So it's actually a little bit easier to build gaming brands because you can be very selective in selected states. We have a huge amount of gaming experience in this company. And I think that's going to come serve us really, really well also in the U.S. How the U.S. market develops, I think it's going to continue to grow, and it's going to grow fast and a lot, it's hard to put numbers on it at this point in time.

Unidentified Analyst

I know you don't disclose German exposure, but the recent drop we've seen of the German regulation. Would you expect that was implemented to view an adjustment that would be material? Or is it pretty much immaterial?

Ulrik Bengtsson

I think it's too early to comment on that. It's not one of the biggest markets of William Hill. It was one of the bigger, not the biggest market for Mr Green. So we have to look at that once we have all the details, and we still don't know where it's Sportsbook or gaming or both, it's just too many moving parts.

Unidentified Analyst

Are there any specific markets that you could identify to scale up or launch in over the next few years in international? Or is it pretty much the current set that we have?

Ulrik Bengtsson

Like I said, the strategy is to selectively invest in markets, we think, has a potential in markets where we think we have a good position. And Sweden is clearly one of them, where we had a lot of good traction. I think we've been the fastest-growing brand in Sweden since sort of halfway through last year. We'll continue to build on that. And like I said, also, Italy and Spain, we've done some product improvements, and of course, we want to capitalize on that.

ok good will start from bottom so read from top will let you no when done thanks.

hi guys do you want me to post earnings transcript from the states i will highlight a section i want you to pay attention to but is long? if yes try not to post in between.

hope some are watching live web cast may give us a rise in sp ? https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/multimedia/349.htm

Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 10:01
Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 10:10
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 10:12
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 11:15 - 11:02
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 11:19
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 10:00 - 12:08

sorry forgot to answer about pfc yes i do see this rising of course. and a 28p dividend on a 300p stock is impressive but we are in uncharted waters with economic effect of covid 19.

most of my portfolio is USA or Chinese adr's stocks i hold pfc/wmh William hill is an interesting one as it's stateside business could overtake it's market cap here i put an article on wmh board had to do it in single posts quit long have a look it's about ten posts long. there are a few i like (stem) could be a good growth story. but right now every thing is high risk i have turned a bit defensive at moment (tsg) in below 60p exit 70p or even a hold it's a gold miner . it does actually pay a dividend. without giving advise i would say airline stocks are going to get hit hardest but will also gain the quickest. but until we get some sort of sustained reversal cash is probably best as i said not advise just a point of view.